Beating Burnout: How to Reclaim Your Energy, Strength, and Consistency When Work Has You Drained

Something I have noticed over the last few weeks is that many of my clients are suffering from burnout and feeling overwhelmed in their day to day jobs and lives, and this is causing them to "fall off the wagon" relating to their health and fitness goals. Daily back to back meetings, deadlines, long hours, skipping meals, lack of sleep are all the things that I am hearing on a daily basis. How do we get here, and what can we do to manage this better so we CAN do the things that bring us joy, we can sleep better at night and get workouts and healthy meals in consistently?

First off, if this sounds familiar, give yourself grace. You are running on fumes and your body is telling you it's time to slow down. Think of your body and mind as a cup. There is only so much space in that cup before it overflows. If stress is the water and it keeps filling the cup, it's going to overflow. When it overflows, something has to change or water is going to go all over the place.

So how do we make that change? How do we break the burnout cycle and bring the water levels down?

Let's first identify and understand how burnout affects the body. We live in a world of constant stimulation these days that we don't even stop to think about how we are impacting our health just by working so hard every day. Every time you work long hours and sacrifice your own well being, health and self care you are aging yourself at a faster rate and impacting your health without even realizing it. I know this because I did this EVERY day for 20 years when I worked in the corporate world until I finally took a long hard look at my life and my health and made the risky decision to leave a well salaried position to pursue my passion of helping people with this very thing. I'm not saying to leave your job and pursue your passion to save your health, but I am here to help you see and hopefully implement changes to help you get past this burnout.

One of the biggest complaints and reasons that clients come to me for coaching is because they want to lose fat. They feel like they have gained weight and are not happy in their skin and need to make a change. When we first consult, one of the key biomarkers we look at is stress levels. 9 times out of 10 these days they'll tell me it's bad. They work a lot, sit all day, skip meals to hit deadlines, have terrible sleep and are just getting by on auto pilot. Yet, they are here to make change cause they are not happy.

Here's the thing. If you are constantly stressed sitting at your desk all day, your cortisol levels are going to be elevated. Cortisol is your stress hormone and it should be elevated in the morning to help you wake up and start your day, but it should come down through the day. When cortisol is always elevated it's putting the body into fight or flight and what most people don't realize is that the body goes into protection mode. When we're in this state, our body will hold on to fat, therefore have to pair down (lose) muscle, and we'll crave foods such as sugars and ultra processed foods. This is where to I tell my clients that it is important to take 5 min breaks throughout your work day and get up and walk away from your computer or desk. Do 10 bodyweight squats, go for a walk around the block, just take 5 min to recharge your mind.

When you are suffering from burnout, you're likely also not sleeping well because you have that deadline on your mind while you lay in bed and you are obsessing over what you have to do tomorrow to get it done. When that becomes overwhelming, you reach over and grab your phone and mindlessly scroll through things to disassociate, which is just blunting your melatonin (sleep hormone) because now you are consuming blue light to the eyes right before you go to bed. Even turning on the dim mode on your phone is not blocking that blue light by the way. More science is showing that scrolling or "doom scrolling" is causing more and more anxiety and depression and showing to have negative impacts on us. So, before bed, stop scrolling! Put the phone away. In fact I recommend to all clients to put your phone away at least 1 hour before bed and do a digital detox. Trust me it makes a world of a difference. Get a real alarm clock and place the phone in another room or on the other side of the room so you are not tempted to grab it while sleeping.

When we are constantly under stress and suffering from burnout we are NOT productive even though we think we are. This is going to lead to mindless eating of sugary foods or processed foods, which has less nutrition value, and therefore will lead to missed workouts as they'll cause fatigue and laziness. That's unfortunately a cold hard truth. Most people know this, but they ignore it because they have to hit the deadlines. Like I said, in the last few weeks alone I've worked with multiple clients who are going through this as I write this.

So why do we fail at our traditional workout plans and nutrition goals when we are experiencing burnout? Firstly, the all or nothing approach backfires. If we can't do it all including eat well every meal, workout every day, hit the steps, and "be perfect", we give up entirely. We just say "forget it" and push it to the back of our minds because we can't focus on ourselves right now, the work is more important. Maybe you're reading this and saying "that's not true, I am important though". You're habits are saying otherwise. Maybe you're still making time for your workouts and going to the gym a few times a week and hammering out your workouts. Going balls to the wall because it's your stress relief and that 2-3 night a week class pushes you and you feel good afterwards getting out all your mental frustrations, but you're not eating enough, so the next day you wake up and you're sluggish and have no energy. Notice a trend? We're now overtraining and under eating causing more fatigue and then you skip a workout and crash. It becomes a vicious cycle. The solution to this is to create structure, consistency, small habits and have self compassion. This is also where a coach can be very beneficial. They're going to help you create that structure, be there for you when you need support and coach you to prioritize your non-negotiables.

Ways we can strategize and implement structure doesn't have to be an all or nothing approach, but focusing on these during burnout periods can make a huge difference. Eat real meals of whole foods including healthy protein, fats and carbs. Don't buy processed foods. If they aren't in the house they won't get consumed. When you do have a day off schedule a few hours to meal prep. Meal Prep is critical to staying successful. Make sure you are eating magnesium rich foods such as dark leafy greens, oats and avocados. Stay hydrated. Your body is made up of mostly water, your brain is mostly water, therefore it needs to be hydrated. Add electrolytes to your water so you can easily absorb and hydrate your cells. Follow the 80/20 approach. 80% whole foods, 20% processed, this will help with that guilt and need for perfection. We are all humans after all and food brings us together and connects us. Have the 1 take out meal a week. Just don't make it your daily go to. if we eat 3 meals a day, we eat on average 21 meals a week. That means 20% is 4 "cheat meals" a week, providing the remaining are well balanced, whole food, nutritious for the remaining 17 meals.

When it comes to your training, make sure you are prioritizing 2-3 x per week 45-60 min strength sessions. Include mobility and restorative movement into your weekly routines. If you can't hit all of your strength sessions, swap in mobility so you are getting movement in. Remember consistency is better than perfection and intensity.

The thing that I know is the hardest thing for my clients to do and is met with the most resistance, but is truly the best and most results driven behaviour, is to time block your non-negotiable self care slots, even if 5-20 min throughout the day. Every time I say this, I can hear it in my client's voice or see it on their face that they are like "yeah right, I don't have time for that". You have to MAKE TIME. It's a choice we make to give ourselves time. If we choose to stay glued to the computer, then we have to accept that change will not happen. I know it is a hard pill to swallow. I was that person when I worked in the corporate world. I glued myself to my desk and made every excuse not to eat my lunch. I had to just finish that one thing, which turned into 5 things. We have to make a conscious effort to step away and take care of our selves or our health will suffer.

Something I ask my clients to do on occasion when they tell me that they never have time and they are stressed out with work is go into their phones and look at the time they spend scrolling. Most phones now show you how screen time. Apple has it built right into the settings. It will tell you how much time you spend on average a day scrolling, and even break it down on the apps you use. If you are spending multiple hours a day scrolling through social media, then maybe it's time to re-evaluate where time is spent and reduce screen time and make time for a workout, or meal prep. Again, it truly comes down to decisions we make. Believe me, even as a health coach, I struggle with these same things. Something I started implementing into my busy routine is pairing up habits. I tell my clients to do the same. An example would be stretching or doing mobility while watching TV at the end of the day, or go for a walk during the meeting that doesn't require you to be by your computer. I used to meal prep when I was on long meetings that didn't require me to be looking at a screen when I worked from home. Finding ways to incorporate your non-negotiable self care tasks into your daily routine will take some thought and dedication, but is not impossible. There may always be excuses, but there are also always solutions!

Remember you can't add to a full cup , but you can slowly take back your space and reclaim your calm, one boundary and habit at a time!

If you are struggling with managing your stress, want to make change to your nutrition and fitness and cannot do it on your own, reach out to me, I can help!